Apple returned to growth in Q1 of 2017, and it expects to continue in Q2.

Apple will host its earnings call for the second quarter of its fiscal 2017 this afternoon at 5pm Eastern (10pm UK), and we'll be liveblogging the call and the analyst Q&A session to give you all the information, along with our insights and charts.

Apple's numbers were down year over year for most of 2016, the first time that has happened in recent memory. The drop was due in part to the outsized success of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, a success the iPhone 6S couldn't replicate. Apple returned to growth in Q1 of 2017, though as some commentators noticed, the quarter also had one more week in it than Q1 of 2016, giving Apple extra time to get those numbers up.

The company does expect modest growth to continue in Q2, however. It projected revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion, which even at the low end is an improvement over last year's $50.6 billion. Assuming Apple hits these numbers (and it consistently does), it will be more informative seeing where that growth comes from. Will the iPhone 7 continue to outperform the 6S despite relatively few external changes? Will the iPad's decline slow down or reverse? Will the new MacBook Pros continue to buoy an otherwise stale Mac lineup? And will revenue from Apple's services continue to grow at a steady clip, as it has for the last few quarters?

When it came to new product launches, it was a relatively quiet quarter, but we did get a handful of new things. The iPhone 7 got a new red finish and the iPhone SE's storage capacities were bumped, and the new $329 iPad is an excellent value (though we'll probably need to wait until next quarter to see its full effect on iPad sales, and any sales improvement may be offset by the aging iPad Pros at the high end).

Andrew Cunningham
Andrew has a B.A. in Classics from Kenyon College and has over five years of experience in IT. His work has appeared on Charge Shot!!! and AnandTech, and he records a weekly book podcast called Overdue. Twitter@AndrewWrites

18 Reader Comments

I tune into the earnings calls just to see if they will announce a new product

seriously anyone who has ever listened in to those calls will learn real quick how stupid some of these analysts really are. They ask questions about future products, and then ask for specifics on items Apple has clearly said it will not provide specifics on. It's always fun to listen to some newbie analyst get shot down.

While there are a ton of question marks surrounding some of their product lineups, I fully expect Apple to continue doing well. Plus there is a lot of hype around this fall which has helped Apple trade above 11x PE which is a welcomed change considering their competitors trade well over 30x and have LESS product diversification.

seriously anyone who has ever listened in to those calls will learn real quick how stupid some of these analysts really are. They ask questions about future products, and then ask for specifics on items Apple has clearly said it will not provide specifics on. It's always fun to listen to some newbie analyst get shot down.

Yeah, there are ways of getting Cook to provide useful info during these calls, so it amazes me how many of the analysts will just throw away their question entirely by asking something that is clearly off limits. Very amateurish- I certainly wouldn't take their analysis seriously.

They have to ask those questions. They know that they will rarely be answered directly, but sometimes, in the way the question is discarded, they get some information. I'm on a lot of conference calls, and sometimes we hear something unexpected., Because the company decides to release some hints during the call.

I have to say that Cook is very disciplined though. Most CEOs are not.

Apple didn't return to growth in Q1 (*), they added a week to it, and grew by less than that, proportionally.

(*) Edit: for perfectly legitimate reasons, a year isn't a round number of weeks.

THEY didn't add a week to anything. The holiday season was a week longer for everyone. Nevertheless, the quarter was a pretty good one, better than expected, and everyone knew it was a longer quarter. Financial people took that into account.

Numbers are up on the site and they're meh. EPS beat, revenue miss. Shares down a couple of percent after market. Dividend up by 10% to about .63 cents / share. Q3 2017 guidance is below previous estimates. Not a company firing on all cylinders, the next 6 months will be crucial in terms of product execution.

Numbers are up. They're meh. Shares down a couple of percent after market. Dividend up by 10% to about .63 cents / share.

Q3 2017 guidance is below previous estimates.

Sales little below the average estimate, but earnings per share were above estimates. It's a good quarter, but not good enough to prevent a share price decline. But I don't expect too much of a decline, as the price is at record levels.

Sales little below the average estimate, but earnings per share were above estimates. It's a good quarter, but not good enough to prevent a share price decline. But I don't expect too much of a decline, as the price is at record levels.

Sales little below the average estimate, but earnings per share were above estimates. It's a good quarter, but not good enough to prevent a share price decline. But I don't expect too much of a decline, as the price is at record levels.

Right, I felt the need to edit and clarify as you were posting.

It should be mentioned that sales and profits were up from the year before. $50.6 billion and $1.90 per share, vs now, at $52.6 Billion and $2.10 per share.

Sales were only $400 million below consensus, and $0.08 above consensus for earnings.

We seem to take analysts numbers as though they mean something, when they don't.

Hmmm. Cook said that revenue was $52.9 billion, not the $52.6 billion we've been reading elsewhere. That means that sales were just about even with consensus, which was $53.02 billion. Not so bad after all, if correct!